


"J" is for "Justified"

by ivorygates



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Episode: s04e04: Crossroads, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-23
Updated: 2013-04-23
Packaged: 2017-12-09 07:09:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/771439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorygates/pseuds/ivorygates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the story of Shau'nac of the Red Hills.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"J" is for "Justified"

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://fignewton.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://fignewton.dreamwidth.org/)**fignewton** 's Alphabet Soup: The prompt for this series was "Allies".

When she was seven years old, Shau'nac of the Red Hills was taken to the Great Temple of Apophis to receive the mark of the god upon her forehead. _Now I am a woman,_ she thought. She was old enough to move from her mother's rooms in the House of Increase to her own room in the House of Promise. For the first time, she could approach the God's shrine and light its lamps. Her prayers would be heard by the God Himself.

When Shau'nac was ten years old, there was a great ceremony. She returned to the Great Temple, and the priestess of Apophis opened Shau'nac's pouch for the first time and placed the body of a god within her flesh. Now she was _Prata_.

It was a glorious thing to know she now served the God Apophis directly. She loved the new strength and power that came with his favor, the freedom from the weakness of the human cattle. She loved being able to go to the temple, to hear the praise-songs of the God Apophis in person, not just over the _vo'cuum._ She loved to walk through rooms and know that _He_ had walked through the same ones, had seen with His own eyes the same sights she beheld. She knew she could never serve Him in His glorious battles with his brother Gods, but she began to hope with all her heart she could serve Him in her own way.

When Shau'nac was thirty years old, she said goodbye to her lover and went to the temple to train to become a priestess. Teal'c had tried to talk her out of it. He swore to her that he would become the greatest of the God Apophis's Jaffa. That he would win such honor in battle that the God would grant him the boon of a wife. And he would come to her and they would wed.

And Shau'nac said: _no._ The life of a Jaffa warrior was uncertain. The path to the God's favor was long.

And she did not want to wait to serve.

When Shau'nac was thirty-five years old, she saw the God Apophis in the flesh. He came to the Temple to speak to the High Priestess, for a Choosing was to be held, and the Temple would preside over the ceremony in which the Gods were made flesh. He was a glorious figure in golden armor: noble, wise, all-seeing. He smiled at her as he passed, and his eyes glowed with the divine fire.

That image warmed her heart for a very long time.

When Shau'nac was fifty years old, she took her seventh _prim'ta_ and became a priestess of the Temple. She cared for the little Gods awaiting Jaffa pouches. She sang the litanies of praise and victory, and presided over the daily cycle of prayers. She gloried in the knowledge she was building the God's empire among the stars.

When Shau'nac was sixty years old, Bra'tac, First Prime to Apophis, came to the temple with his newest apprentices to dedicate them to the service of the God. Teal'c was among them, and her heart sang, for it was yet another proof of Apophis's wisdom, that he recognized Teal'c's greatness.

It was proof that Teal'c lived.

When she is seventy years old, Shau'nac is given a new duty. Now she presides over the _kel'no'reem_ of the apprentices and the younger priestesses, and knows from this that someday, many years from now, she will be High Priestess of the Temple. Her days are full: she brings children into the world to serve the God. She gives them His flesh to bear. She brings forth the Gods ready to take Their robes of flesh.

Her heart is as full as her days.

In the year she takes her twelfth _prim'ta_ , she is given a miracle. It is a long time before she understands it for what it is. Then there is joy to wash away the sorrow and the fear, the hours she spent before the Great Altar, weeping at the knowledge that had come to her through her folly. She has broken the first and greatest law of her people, the one given to her at her _Prata_. She has touched the mind of the God whom she carries, and in doing so, has discovered it to be no god at all.

She knew not what it was, this alien mind that sent her terrible visions, that gloried in her suffering and delighted in pain. She thought of the God Apophis, wise and merciful and just, and felt its mockery. For it was of Apophis, was _like_ Apophis.

As Apophis was like the one she carried.

Monster.

But she could not, would not, believe it.

She had already broken the greatest law and concealed her crime. And so she went, again and again, to touch the mind of the being within her. Trying to understand. Trying to explain…

And years passed.

Enemy became ally, became friend, became _cal'mah_ , dear to her as the child she would never bear. And she knew that all the pain she had suffered was justified.

In those years, rumors came to the Temple, and Shau'nac drank them up like sweet nectar. Great Lord Ra, dead. Rebellion among the gods who were no gods. Rebellion among the Jaffa, and her once-lover branded _shol'va._ Traitor.

Only Shau'nac knew this was an honor beyond any the False God Apophis could ever have bestowed. She spoke of it to no one, until the day Master Bra'tac came to the Temple to tell them Apophis was dead, that the Jaffa were free, that the First World had been rediscovered, and the brave warriors of the _Tau'ri_ had pledged themselves to destroy the _Goa'uld_. And he believed they would, for Teal'c was among them, leading their greatest warriors into battle.

And the _cal'mah_ within her leaped for joy at Bra'tac's words. _Soon,_ she whispered to it, _soon you will be ready to take a host. Not as the Goa'uld do, in horror and subjugation, but as Tok'ra do. You will bring justice where there has only been tyranny._ She felt its wordless eagerness to help her people, its impatience to join the fight for their liberation.

When Shau'nac was nearly a century old, she beheld her _cal'mah_ in the flesh for the first time. And Hebron smiled at her, and so did Tanith. His eyes twinkled, as if he knew a joke and wanted to share it with her. He took her tenderly in his arms.

"You showed me the means to destroy the _Tok’ra_ ," he said. His hands closed on her arms like the shackles of slavery, and she began to struggle.

"Now accept your reward."

Shau'nac of the Red Hills had seen ninety-nine years come and go.

She would not see a hundred.

#


End file.
